Tag Archive for: Vince McMahon

I was just getting into professional wrestling in 1997, one of the hottest years in quite some time. I didn’t grow up watching Bret Hart, Owen Hart, the British Bulldog, or anybody else. I didn’t realize the weight that Montreal carried with it. But in the years since, as a self-proclaimed wrestling historian, I have watched the Bret Hart DVD set WWE produced in 2005, Bret’s 2006 Hall of Fame speech, the A&E documentary “Wrestling with Shadows,” read his book and I’ve seen every match of his I have on any DVD in my library.

WWE Hart & Soul DVD

I’m a Bret Hart mark.

I buy into the Hitman character, who stands for what’s right in a world where characters can be so deceiving and callous. I believe that Bret Hart, the person, has had an incredible life and career. He’s seen so much in his life, has meant so much to Canada, and has inspired so many that it’s hard not to like him.

Naturally, I had to buy the Hart & Soul DVD. I’d read about the Hart family in both Bret Hart’s book “Hitman,” and in Martha Hart’s tragic account of her husband Owen’s death in “Broken Harts,” that I felt Hart & Soul would make a great addition to my collection.

Bret pulled no punches in his book. Perhaps he was writing it at a different stage in his life, but I thought the WWE pulled many punches in their production. I thought their portrayal of the Harts was always a positive one, when it seemed that Bret said it wasn’t always – or even usually – the case.

The other issue I have with it is that I thought it should have went longer. The Harts have gone through so much that I think it needed to be documented further. Maybe WWE felt that fans could purchase Bret’s book, but I doubt that since they wouldn’t see a dime of that profit.

Minus those two things, I’ve always been curious in the Hart family. I think this is a great addition to anyone’s DVD collection, featuring interviews from many members of the Hart family. The features are even hosted by the third generation – Tyson Kidd, David Hart Smith and Natalya.

Top 5 favorite matches on WWE’s Hart & Soul: The Hart Family Anthology

Bret Hart vs. The British Bulldog – Summerslam 1992

I can’t say anything about this match that hasn’t already been said.

Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart – Summerslam 1994

I liked how there was no blood. Bret alluded to this on his DVD when he said most cage matches are bloody affairs, but I thought this really told a good story about a younger brother trying to overcome his brother – and really, his whole family.

Owen Hart vs. The British Bulldog – RAW 1997

This match crowned the Bulldog as the first WWF European Champion. I hadn’t seen this match before and was very impressed with the athletic performance of both men. Starting off very technical, Owen resorted to some sneaky tactics. The German crowd ate it up.

How much do you think any professional wrestling company would love to hear a crowd as hot as the one in Calgary that night? It wasn’t the best technical or scientific match, but the simple story of the Hart Foundation and their entire family uniting was really special to the live crowd.

This was a random pick, almost. I liked all of the matches on this set, but I really liked the cast of characters in this flag match. The Austin/Dude/Taker combo involves three of my favorites, along with Bret on the other side. So it was a lot of fun for me.

Bonus!

Vince McMahon vs. Bret Hart – WrestleMania 26

This match wasn’t included on this disc, but if you have WrestleMania, watch this match after you watch the Hart & Soul set. Again, I thought this told a great story of a family united.

The National Football League has made a lot of press lately about protecting its players from concussions. While the health and well-being of these men is important, another group of athletes in a dangerous profession isn’t getting as much press.

These men and women work for the top two professional wrestling companies in the United States, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).

Within weeks of the WWE’s policy going public, TNA seemed to show blatant disregard to concussions in trying to put over Rob Terry as a monster. After their April match on Impact ended, wrestler Homicide entered the ring and blasted Terry over the head with a vicious chair shot. “The Freak,” as he’s called, didn’t sell the move and instead delivered a slam to Homicide while blood slid down his face from the top of his head.

Chris Nowinski, a Harvard football player turned WWE superstar, was forced into early retirement due to multiple concussions suffered on the field and in the ring. Since leaving WWE, Nowinski has started the Sports Legacy Institute, which looks into brain trauma in all sports. Particularly, the SLI studied the brain of former WWE superstar Chris Benoit – the individual who murdered his wife and his son before hanging himself over the course of a weekend in June 2007 – and said it resembled that of an 85-year-old Alzheimer’s patient.

To be fair, Benoit’s brain trauma isn’t the result of just chair shots. It also had to be aided by years of steroid and painkiller abuse based on reports that have surfaced since his death.

But not every wrestler – or sports entertainer, or superstar, or performer or whatever the “Big Two” want to call their talent pool these days – who has taken unprotected chair shots has wound up dead.

Look at Mick Foley. The “Hardcore Legend” has taken chair shot after chair shot. He’s also performed countless other asinine stunts that probably should have killed him by now.

I reached to my Twitter followers who are fans of the product to see what they had to say about the lack of unprotected chair shots in wrestling. To J Nicholas Autumn, wrestling today is missing just the type of violence Foley endured.

“[T]here is little to no reason why two consenting adults couldn’t choose to partake in an action that helps peak the audience’s interest in their performance,” Autumn said. “Many of the most memorable professional wrestling feuds and matches have ended in one man’s bloodshed induced by a chair or other foreign object’s malicious use.”

Sounds a lot like the “I Quit” match in which Foley received nearly a dozen chair shots before the match finally ended.

Autumn may be onto a point regarding lasting memories, as the series of chair shots Foley took was one of the first images that popped into my mind.

TNA has since banned unprotected steel chair shots to the head after one of its top stars, Mr. Anderson, was sidelined with a concussion after an accidental blow by Jeff Hardy in late 2010. The incident forced TNA to reshuffle its pay-per-view card and find a new opponent for Hardy.

“TNA has absolutely thrown down the gauntlet and said no more unprotected chair shots,” Anderson told the “Between the Ropes” radio show. He said agents backstage proceed with caution when weapons are planned for a match.

WWE talent needs to be even more careful with chair shots now. In marketing to a younger audience, the sex and violence has been toned down. However, WWE’s latest pay-per-view was called TLC, which stands for Tables, Ladders and Chairs. Opponents are able to use any three of the weapons and must climb a ladder to retrieve an object – usually a title belt – to win the match.

On a recent episode of RAW, WWE Champion The Miz faced Jerry “The King” Lawler in a TLC match, perhaps as a way to introduce new fans to the concept. Compared to previous TLC matches, their match was tame for a variety of reasons. The Miz gingerly placed chair shots to Lawler’s back, and there were no chair shots to the head or blood. The ladder was barely used as a weapon, and the spots where two wrestlers went through separate tables were very carefully done.

As the business evolves, WWE and TNA need to rely on other ways for their talent to get stories over. For far too long, the wrestling industry has relied on dangerous tactics to advance its characters. Finally, the powers that be realize this. Hopefully, going forward, they are able to capitalize on maintaining realism and believability without sacrificing the health of their performers.